[Tom Matthies]

what is your delivery format going to be? If you are going to go to a tape or a standard DVD for delivery, avoid shooting in 24p advanced mode. It will give you stuttery looking motion if played back at 29.97fps. The pulldown cadience is wrong for standard rate video (assuming ntsc). Just shoot “regular” 24p in this case. If it’s going to be conformed to film or a 24fps DVD, then advanced mode will be OK.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Faster, cheaper, better

Pick two of the above…

My motto.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

FWIW, Mini DV does not necessarily mean unlocked audio. Some miniDV cameras do indeed have this feature. I shoot on a JVC GYDV-700W and this particular model does have locked audio capabilities. It even features a readout on the LCD display that notes that the audio is in fact locked at 48K.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

It should work. The trick when mounted on a camera is to roll the Firestore locally from it’s own control panel and not from the camera’s start/stop control. I haven’t tried to record to the FS-3 from any source other than the camera since it’s mounted to the camera. I haven’t thied to add a second external Firewire drive to the unit either, but that’s suppoped to be an option as well for recording very long events.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I’ve been recording on a Panasonic Mini-DV deck. Not sure offhand of the exact model since it’s owned by the hospital and I’m not there right now. We have a small studio setup in the hospital itself where we record a weekly cable access-type show featuring a host and assorted medical types. We switch thru a Panasonic MX-70 switcher (with that damned three frame delay in the video) and into the Panasonic deck via s-video. I have the Firewire output of the deck going into the Firewire input of the G5. When we roll the tape for record, I do a “capture now” in Final Cut and the deck acts as a pass thru converter. So far, it’s worked four shows out of four for the full half hour. It saves all of the capture time and you still have a tape for backup as well.

As for the Firestore, I’ll check out which settings will work. I’ve used it in the time lapse mode for capturing from a live camera, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried to capture in realtime without rolling a tape at the same time. It should work the same. I’ll try it and let you know.
*******
Update.
Since I had my camera (a JVC GY-DV-700WS) handy, I gave it a try. It works fine. All you need to do is to put the Firestore in the “local” mode in the control menu, change the timecode input to “Rec. Run” in the setup menu and you’re all set (after presetting the time code). Just hit the “record” and “Play” buttons at the same time to “arm” the system and then press the “Record” key again to begin recording. I captured a couple of clips just now, and it worked fine. BTW, I’m using a Firestore FS-3 in this case.

Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Good information. Thanks everyone.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

You might want to look at the Firestore series by Focus Enhancements. I use the FS-3 and it works well to recoed right out of the camera. It should work to capture from a Firewire equipped switcher, but you might want to check to be sure. I have captured directly to a Mac running FCP with good sucess as well.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Actually in this case it’s on a machine running 4.5 and OS10.3.7.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Also, what shape is your Betacam deck in. A BVW-70 is a fairly old deck. Most of our BVW series decks around here don’t look as good these days as they did when new. It will depend on many factors- head condition, capacitors, edge connectors within the deck, signal path and so on. If your converter from FCP is good, then what the deck records should be accurate as well-provided the deck is working up to specs. Are you going into the deck component analog or composite? Each way has potential areas to create problems. In composite, the decoder must be in top notch condition for good recording. In component, each of the three connectors and signal paths must be accurate for good reproduction. Do you have more than one deck to check your video on. If so, try another deck and see if it has the same problem. If so, I’m guessing that your output card is at fault or the signal path is bad somewhere.
I feed my BetaSP deck with an Aja Io via the component connectors and the color bars are very accurate.
My 2

[Tom Matthies]

Hi Mark.
How are things in the “Springs” these days? I sure miss the weather out there.
Anyhow, you have most likely found that the outputs from the 25-pin D connector are “live” all the time along with the XLR connectors. I believe that they are line level, but not sure if they are 0db or +4db. I run my Io out to a Beringer mixer and use it for a small audio DA. It works well since it has a couple of +4db outputs to feed the Beta decks , a control room output for the audio amps and an unbalanced -10db to feed a small RCA-type da that in turn feeds the VHS machines and the DVD recorder. I have also toyed with the idea of making use of the additional outputs at the D-connector. What did you find out about the levels from the website? I’m interested as well. I too have a tray of vintage DAs that really should be retired.
Say “Hi” to the old gang…or to whoever is still there.
Tom